Neville def. Bad News Barrett(10:36)
Thoughts: Originally, Barrett was supposed to face Daniel Bryan for the Intercontinental Championship, but D-Bry was taken off the card for health concerns, so they decided to pair Barrett with the newcomer, Neville and truth be told, we got a match that would probably be as good as D-Bry/Barrett might have been. Now I'm not saying that Neville is the next Daniel Bryan, since they're two different types of wrestlers with two different styles, but as long as D-Bry remains on the shelf, the more we'll being seeing of Neville. Anyway, this was a very good match, especially for a pre-show match. It told a nice big man vs little man story and it also showcased the amazing high flying ability of Neville, which is always a plus and while the chin locks were a little tedious, the final stretch was hot stuff.
Rating: ***1/2(Not counted towards Final Rating)
Dean Ambrose def. Luke Harper(56:10)
Thoughts: Is there anyway better to start the show? Dean Ambrose is going to get the crowd excited and it's a freaking Chicago street fight, who native of Chicago wouldn't love that. As the match went on, it was turning out really good...and then, they went to the back where Harper got in a SUV and straight up bolted with Ambrose hoping in the back. They're still having the match, but they have to move on with the show, but for the sake of convenience and because I don't want to repeat myself later, let's talk about the ending. They finally comeback two matches later, only this time, it's Harper in the back seat and Ambrose is driving. How in the love of fuck did that happen? Harper heads for the ring, but Ambrose takes and shortcut and flies at him in the aisle. Ambrose and Harper fill the ring with steel chairs and begin dueling in the middle of the ring. Harper powerbomb Ambrose onto a pile of chairs but only gets a two count. Harper buries Ambrose under a pile of chairs and heads up top, but Ambrose springs up and launches Harper onto the pile of chairs. Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds onto the chairs and gets the three count. I'll give it this; it certainly was creative, but I’m just annoyed that every Ambrose match has to revolve around him being a cartoon-ish lunatic instead of being a psychotic badass that got him over in the first place. I was loving the match before they left for an hour, but I really just wanted this to be a stiff, hardcore brawl. This was a major disappointment and the match was sacrificed for the sake of doing something cute for the show. Also, couldn't they do film something with them fighting in the streets of Chicago, like how about the two fighting in Wrigley Field? That would've been awesome!
Rating: ***(Would've been higher had it not been for the intermission)
Dolph Ziggler def. Sheamus(9:16)
Thoughts: I'm not sure why, but everyone seemed to be thinking that Sheamus would win this match and it makes sense why; he had just returned, turned heel and this was him match stipulation. However, I was one of the few who thought Dolph would win. Why? Because this is the type of match where the heel must lose. And guess what? I was right as Ziggler managed to steal a 3-count. It was funny seeing Sheamus freaking out after the match and trying to find a way out of getting out of the stipulation. He finally gets on his knees, but instead of kissing Dolph's ass, he goes low on him!!! Brogue Kick to Ziggler and Sheamus says he promised the world Ziggler would kiss his arse. He shoves Ziggler’s face into his ass and stands tall. Overall, a good, albeit short match. Sheamus got a chance to show off his aggressive new attitude while Ziggler was game enought to take a beating for him. With more time, this could have been really good. But they have another PPV match coming.
Rating: ***
The New Day(Kofi Kingston & Big E) def. Tyson Kidd & Cesaro(c)(9:47)
Thoughts: As I said in my Wrestlemania XXXI Review, I came out of the Tag Title match really liking Kofi & Big E has a tag team and so did WWE I guess, since they gave them a title shot. However, they also made The New Day a heel group, which was a great decision. It's kind of a thing that(to the best of my knowledge) Bo Dallas started: a heel who thinks he's a face. However, New Day do that much better. They're so annoying in their positivity that it grates on everyone, but they don't see that; they think they're bringing inspiration to everyone and that's what has made New Day actually fun to watch the last couple of months. Despite that, I still didn't expect them to win here...and yet they did! It makes sense in hindsight since Cesaro & Kidd have gotten over as faces, so they need a heel team. Without a doubt, this is the best showing I have seen from the New Day, as the heel turn seems to have breathed new life into the act. Even with the time constraints, they didn’t even have a heat segment, so we had a hot and wild tag match that the crowd was really into. Another match on the show that could have used more time, but they did great with the limited time they had to work with.
Rating: ***1/4
Russian Chain Match:
WWE United States Championship
John Cena(c) def. Ruzev(13:35)
Thoughts: To his credit, John Cena has made the US Title interesting for the 1st time in a long time, all thanks to his US Championship open challenges he has on RAW. However, he still has to deal with Ruzev, so he are. They playing with 4 corners rules: 1st to touch all 4 corners in succession with halting progress wins. Personally, that killed the match for me. They should've just let them go at it with regular pinfall/submission fules, but attached to each other with the chain. In fact, by doing that, we got a nonsensical finish. Both Cena and Ruzev touch three corners and succession and they meet in the middle of the ring and realize they have to touch that same final corner to win. Of course Cena AA's Ruzev and wins. Technically, the ref should have reset the boards since both Cena and Ruzev didn't make any forward progress when they were in the middle before they went for the final corner, but whatever, it's WWE Logic. Of all their matches, this is my least favorite, but that doesn't mean it's bad. They both did their best to work around the limitations and did some good spots, but this still lacked the intensity that both the previous 2 matches had.
Rating: **3/4
Nikki Bella(c) def. Naomi(7:18)
Thoughts: Naomi's got some new music and sporting these electric, color-changing boots. How on earth did Chris Jericho never think of this? Anyway, this was a pretty solid outing. They actually got the dead crowd to get into the near falls towards the finish. I was a big fan of Naomi’s work here and her new aggressive heel edge is going to do wonders for her, especially when she does win the Divas Title.
Rating: **1/4
Roman Reigns def. The Big Show(19:46)
Thoughts: To WWE's credits, this was really the only match they could give to this two that would make the fans give a damn about this match. Nobody has given a fuck about the Reigns/Show feud, but at least it ended(I hope) on one hell of a match. I loved how in the beginning, Show was teasing the fans by putting away weapons whenever Reigns got them out and even breaking a table at one point. They put in some great spots, but it did end cheap with Reigns buring Show by using the announce table. Still, contrived spots and some plodding moments aside, these two guys took some spectacular bumps, particularly Reigns and had a pretty awesome brawl. Reigns showed awesome fire and resilience here and is working his ass off, so performances like these will help him in his rebuilding process. Reigns is quietly having an excellent in ring year, having the best match of the night on 3 straight PPVs.
Rating: ***3/4
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins(c) def. Randy Orton(21:02)
Thoughts: The RKO is banned from this match and Kane is the gatekeeper. This begs the question of who's the keymaster, but whatever. My favorite part of the match was when Orton wanted to go for the RKO, but remembered he can't, so what does he do? He steals Triple H's finisher instead. This calls back to Orton/Michaels from Survivor Series 2007 where Shawn's Sweet Chin Music was banned. As you probably guess, Kane eventually gets involved, though only because Rollins kicked the door right into Kane’s face. He chokeslammes J&J and then chokeslammes both Orton and Rollins, but puts Rollins over Orton, but that only gets 2. Kane goes to Tombstone him, but Orton counters into an RKO on Kane. Rollins RKOs Orton and that gives Rollins enough time to escape the cage. Of course, this begged the question was the RKO banned for both guys, but really, it's not important. Overall, this was a decent cage match. It was really slow early, but picked up prior to all the overbooking and I love Rollins acting like a weasel and trying to escape at every turn while Orton found unique ways to punish Rollins without going to the RKO. What I find frustrating though, is that the focus of this match was primarily on Kane and the stuff involving him at the end was just too much and when Kane's the focus of the major storyline, you know that WWE is just killing time till they get to Summerslam
Rating: ***1/4
Final Rating:
2.84 out of 5
